Gandolfini to Play Jersey Barbecue Diplomat

According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO’s next collaboration with James Gandolfini will be about Robert Egan, the owner of Cubby’s BBQ in Hackensack, New Jersey, whose advocacy for Vietnam POWs led him to become a sort of self-appointed liaison with the North Koreans (they even asked him to open a Cubby’s there). The guy’s a character: In a 2007 New Yorker profile, Egan is quoted as saying: “If you told me that to get bin Laden I’d have to physically eat him for dinner — his whole body — I’d say, ‘Well, we’ve got a lot of barbecue sauce. Let’s barbecue him.’” Cubby’s customers may want to tread lightly around those ribs. [HR via Vulture]